Jozy Altidore - Loving all the soccer

Jozy Altidore blogs about his experiences over the last few weeks, including the training camp and his time on the pitch during the Sweden match and his hectic schedule. To sum it up quickly, he loves it.

"All soccer, all the time. And some people may say that it’s too much, but I like to be part of it even more. I’m getting a lot of experience early and having a great time. I have no complaints."

Sounds like he is happy. So what about his thoughts on his play last Saturday?

As a substitute for the second half Coach Bob Bradley told me to go into the game, help on defense when I have to and do what the game dictates. You just can’t go out there and do what you want. You need to work within the aspects of the game, Bob just told me to be smart about it.

I thought that one of my better attributes is my speed. I might not be the fastest, but I think I’m O.K. and I think I gave them a different look, a little more pace than the other forwards they’d seen in the game. In the first half, we gave them guys up front with a little different technique. Then we switched up nice.

Pretty much sums up what he did. He goes on to talk about the way he forced the defense to take him down and get the foul, which shows how smart he plays.

Altidore's experience is sort of the antithesis of Freddy Adu's. Both were very young when the entered the league and both are very talented, but MLS treated them very differently. Adu was the poster boy and billed as the second coming of Pele while Altidore wasn't even pushed as the face of the team from New York. This has obviously allowed Altidore more room to grow on his own and develop into a wonderful player while Adu seemed confined by it.

I do really hope that the way the league is handling Altidore is the result of the Adu situation as it will show they learned a very important lesson and one that will only help the next crop of youngsters coming onto the stage.